The school year is officially in full swing! By now, we are into our routines: classes, work, meetings, meals and hopefully some sleep.

As for Student Senate, we are underway as well! We are currently in the process of elections for the vacant positions. For Vice President of Communication, we have Nick Brady, Darrah Hulva and Kolton Ray. As for the class senators, Meaghan Grady and
McKenzie Sauer are running for First Year Senator, while Shelby Mason and Drake Mellott are running for Junior Senator. We also had two positions that were not contested: Vice President of Finance Grant Edwards and International Senator Nate Trout. I am so excited for the new members of Student Senate and I can’t wait to see who will be elected in the weeks to come.

As follow up from last week’s edition, I spoke with Molly Berry concerning the time of the Involvement Fair. She reassured that they are aware that having the Involvement Fair during the lunch hour was not effective and that for future times it will be moved back to
the afternoon or evening.

The Exec Board for Student Senate met last week to discuss the new year and the direction of Student Senate. One of the major topics was the allocation process for student organizations. We discussed what did and did not work with the process last year.

For the Student Allocation Fee Committee (the allocation committee which serves the Big 8), the newly elected Vice President of Finance will be taking on the task of the bylaws. Currently, SAFC has not had a set of working by-laws since about 2009. One of
our goals this year is to create by-laws that will help ensure transparency within the committee.

For the Student Organization Allocation Committee (which most student organizations allocate from), the two major topics included who would serve on the committee and the possibility of changing the workshops concept. Back in the spring, I meet with a group of
student organization presidents and turned in a report to the Office of Student Programs at the time discussing what the student leaders felt. One of the major themes from the roundtable was the fact that the required SOAC workshops were causing many
problems. They felt it was difficult to find two delegates from every organization to attend, especially considering they were in the middle of the day. Student Senate will be working with the Office of Inclusion and Student Engagement to see what changes can
take place.

Student Senate will be hosting their first general meeting on Sept. 17 at 5 p.m. in the Parquet Room. Everyone is allowed to attend. Come and have your voice be heard!